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Cursor.orgMediaTransparency.org sponsor More stories by Bill Berkowitz PERC receives Templeton Freedom Award for promoting 'enviropreneurs' Media Transparency writersAndrew J. Weaver FundometerEvaluate any page on the World Wide Web against our databases of people, recipients, and funders of the conservative movement. |
ORIGINAL RESEARCHBill Berkowitz Falwell builds his legacyFifty years behind the pulpit and 30 years in the political spotlight has not slowed the Reverend Jerry FalwellAfter 50 years behind the pulpit at the Thomas Road Baptist Church, in Lynchburg, Virginia, and nearly 30 years in the political spotlight, the Rev. Jerry Falwell has a lot to be proud of. While In the late 1970s, Paul Weyrich, widely considered as the guru of the modern conservative movement, Terry Dolan, Richard Viguerie, the godfather of conservative direct mail, and Howard Phillips left Christian Voice and tapped televangelist Falwell to head up the Moral Majority. Over the years, as the Reverend became more influential politically, he became a favored guest on cable television's news programs. From his pre-Moral Majority days when he preached against religious folk supporting the civil rights movement, to his support for President Ronald Reagan-backed contra movements in Central America and Africa, movements that were responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of people, to his invective against Nelson Mandela and South Africa's African National Congress and his support for the apartheid regime, Falwell has been a Republican Party stalwart and a dependable voice of reaction. From accusing Tinky-Winky, a character on the popular British children's television show "Teletubbies," of being gay, to being involved in a video entitled, "The Clinton Chronicles: An Investigation into the Alleged Criminal Activities of Bill Clinton," which accused President Clinton of being involved in a covert cocaine-smuggling operation, to blaming pagans, abortionists, feminists, gays and the American Civil Liberties Union for the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Falwell has had more than his fair share of embarrassing moments. On a broadcast of Pat Robertson's 700 Club, shortly after the Twin Towers fell, Falwell said: "I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen." Falwell was later pressured into issuing an apology. From accepting a $3.5 million donation from the Unification Church's Rev. Sum Myung Moon in 1994 to allow his then-struggling Liberty University -- a school founded in 1971 "to develop Christ-centered men and women with the values, knowledge and skills essential to impact tomorrow's world" -- to put its financial house in order, to currently presiding over a major expansion -- including a new law school, 10 dormitories, a football clubhouse and a chapel -- of the Lynchburg campus, Falwell has had the magic touch attracting wealthy conservative benefactors and philanthropists. Coming home to LynchburgAfter graduating from Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Mo., at the age of 22, Falwell "returned to his hometown and started his church with 35 members in an old Donald Duck soda bottling plant," a late-June Associated Press story pointed out. Falwell told the AP that they "scraped syrup off the floors and walls," to get the building into shape. To build a congregation, he "began knocking on 100 doors a day, six days a week," he said. A year later, Falwell's Thomas Road Church had 864 members; it now has nearly 25,000. "Within a few weeks of starting the church, Falwell found a way to expand his reach quickly -- first with a radio program, then a live Sunday night television show -- the "Old Time Gospel Hour" -- on the Lynchburg ABC affiliate. In 1956, the move was bold," AP reported. "Nobody else was doing it," Falwell said. In his interview with AP, Falwell dated his political activism to the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade ruling that established a woman's right to an abortion. "Believing life begins at conception, I became very exercised over this," he said. With Falwell at the helm, the Moral Majority, founded in 1979 (dissolved in 1989), prospered. And, unlike some of his televangelist brethren -- among them, Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker -- who were severely wounded by sexual and financial scandals, Falwell's enterprises prospered throughout the 1980s. Building the future of Liberty UniversityNow, in his early seventies and having recovered from being seriously ill last year, Falwell is focused on making Liberty University his everlasting legacy. Liberty University's 4,400 acre campus is home to 9,600 students and another 15,000 are enrolled in its distance learning program. "Falwell's goal is to have 25,000 on the campus in 13 years," the Associated Press reported. The university offers B.A.s from its college of arts and sciences, its schools of business, communication, education and religion, and it offers graduate degrees in 15 programs. Athletics plays a major role on campus; Liberty participates in 18 NCAA division-1 programs. In a lengthy profile of Liberty University in Forbes magazine (September 18, 2006), Dirk Smillie wrote: Religious instruction permeates academic and social life. Prayer leaders minister to groups of five students, who must attend chapel three times a week; the school prides itself on turning out ‘champions of Christ' who take the Bible literally, believe in creationism, political conservatism and free enterprise. The law school preaches that separation of church and state was never intended by the founders. Students must submit to random drug tests and adhere to hair and dress codes. Coed dorms, partying and sexual promiscuity are out. Anyone involved with ‘witchcraft, seances or other satanic or demonic activity,' warns the student handbook, will be slapped with a $500 fine and 30 hours of community service. The Forbes story also pointed out that Falwell, the school's chancellor, and his son, Jerry Jr., its vice chancellor, have been experiencing some tough sledding raising money to grow Liberty University. At the same time, Jerry Jr. has been focused on a number of real estate ventures. One project -- together with a real estate developer -- involves the building of a ski resort on Lynchburg's Candlers Mountain. "Reverend Falwell, who used his television ministry [The Jerry Falwell Ministries] to raise $2 billion for conservative causes in the 1980s, isn't the money machine he once was," the Forbes piece pointed out. "He and his son have spent the last few years battling to work off $100 million-plus in debt, just as donations to Falwell Sr.'s Thomas Road Baptist Church, the university's onetime key benefactor, have shriveled. At the same time father and son have towering ambitions: They're looking to raise $1 billion to solidify Liberty's legacy as a West Point for the faithful." Despite the financial setbacks, the Falwells maintained that they will be "complet[ing] $82 million in campus construction projects," this month. "Nearly half that sum is being spent to transform a million-square-foot former Ericsson plant bordering the campus into a new law school and a larger site for the church. The mammoth building came courtesy of an $11 million purchase on Liberty's behalf in 2004 by David Green, chief executive of retailing giant Hobby Lobby Creative Centers and a big backer of evangelical education. ....Since 1999 Jerry Jr. and his private development firm have raised $100 million or so via sales of land and leaseholds to pull in retailers -- Wal-Mart, Kohl's, Staples and Circuit City, plus a dozen restaurant chains -- around Liberty's campus. "Jerry Jr. is a one-man real estate boom," cracks Christopher Doyle, vice president at CB Richard Ellis and the Falwells' point guy on the Candlers development. Liberty also found a savior in life insurance mogul and Forbes 400 member Arthur L. Williams, who has dropped $70 million into the kitty. His biggest gift came in 1997 with the proviso that he be allowed to send his finance chief to scrutinize Liberty's books. It came out that the source of Liberty's ramshackle financial state was an overreliance on donations from Falwell's diminishing TV ministry. Williams also urged him to scale back his other ministries and make Liberty the focus of the family business. 'Jerry Falwell is one tough dude,' Williams says. "He refused to let his dream die." Williams has created a few of his own: His $12 million for a new basketball arena and football stadium helped recruit University of Virginia coach Danny Rocco for the upcoming season. Other big gifts have come in from the likes of apocalyptic Christian novelist Tim LaHaye, whose $7 million helped to build an ice rink and a student center with five basketball courts and an Olympic-size pool. The Moral Majority officially shut down in 1989, replaced by the Christian Coalition, Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council and a host of other conservative Christian organizations. However, 15 years later, Falwell, seeing a political opening and hoping to re-connect with his funding base, announced the formation of an organization called The Moral Majority Coalition, which he characterized as a "21st century resurrection of the Moral Majority." As the mending-fences visit of Sen. John McCain to the Liberty University campus earlier this year, Falwell's continued deep involvement in high-level GOP politics, and his connection to the development of the Pastor John Hagee's lobbying group, Christian Zionist Christians United for Israel, has shown, the Reverend isn't only about setting up multi-million dollar endowments and fashioning impressive real estate deals. Nearly 30 years after entering the political fray, Falwell still has formidable political clout. sign in, or register to email stories or comment on them.
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MORE ORIGINAL RESEARCHBill Berkowitz PERC receives Templeton Freedom Award for promoting 'enviropreneurs'Right Wing foundation-funded anti-environmental think tank grabbing a wider audience for 'free market environmentalism' On the 15th anniversary of Terry Anderson and Donald Leal's book "Free Market Environmentalism" -- the seminal book on the subject -- Anderson, the Executive Director of the Bozeman, Montana-based Property and Environment Research Center (PERC - formerly known as the Political Economy Research Center) spoke in late-January at an event sponsored by Squaw Valley Institute at the Resort at Squaw Creek in California. While it may have been just another opportunity to speak on "free market environmentalism" and not the kickoff of a "victory tour," nevertheless it comes at a time when PERC's ideas are taking root.
Bill Berkowitz Neil Bush of Saudi ArabiaDuring recent visit, President’s brother describes the country as a 'kind of tribal democracy' In late February, only a few days after Saudi Arabia beheaded four Sri Lankan robbers and then left their headless bodies on public display in the capital of Riyadh, Neil Bush, for the fourth time in the past six years, showed up for the country's Jeddah Economic Forum. The Guardian reported that Human Rights Watch "said the four men had no lawyers during their trial and sentencing, and were denied other basic legal rights." In an interview with Arab News, the Saudi English language paper, Bush described the country as "a kind of tribal democracy."
Bill Berkowitz Newt Gingrich's back door to the White HouseAmerican Enterprise Institute "Scholar" and former House Speaker blames media for poll showing 64 percent of the American people wouldn't vote for him under any circumstances Whatever it is that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has come to represent in American politics, the guy is nothing less than fascinating. One day he's espousing populist rhetoric about the need to cut the costs of college tuition and the next day he's talking World War III. One day he's claiming that the "war on terror" may force the abridgement of fundamental first amendment rights and the next he's advancing a twenty-first century version of his Contract with America. At the same time he's publicly proclaiming how "stupid" it is that the race for the presidency has already started you know that he's trying to figure out how to out finesse Rudy, McCain and Romney for the nomination. And last week, when Fox News' Chris Wallace cited a poll showing that 64 percent of the public would never vote for him, he was quick to blame those results on how unfairly he was treated by the mainstream media back in the day.
Bill Berkowitz American Enterprise Institute takes lead in agitating against IranDespite wrongheaded predictions about the war on Iraq, neocons are on the frontlines advocating military conflict with Iran After doing such a bang up job with their advice and predictions about the outcome of the war on Iraq, would it surprise you to learn that America's neoconservatives are still in business? While at this time we are not yet seeing the same intense neocon invasion of our living rooms -- via cable television's news networks -- that we saw during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, nevertheless, a host of policy analysts at conservative think tanks -- most notably the American Enterprise Institute -- are being heeded on Iran by those who count - folks inside the Bush Administration.
Bill Berkowitz After six years, opposition gaining on George W. Bush's Faith Based InitiativeUnmentioned in the president's State of the Union speech, the program nevertheless continues to recruit religious participants and hand out taxpayer money to religious groups With several domestic policy proposals unceremoniously folded into President Bush's recent State of the Union address, two pretty significant items failed to make the cut. Despite the president's egregiously tardy response to the event itself, it was nevertheless surprising that he didn't even mention Hurricane Katrina: He didn't offer up a progress report, words of hope to the victims, or come up with a proposal for moving the sluggish rebuilding effort forward. There were no "armies of compassion" ready to be unleashed, although it should be said that many in the religious community responded to the disaster much quicker than the Bush Administration. In the State of the Union address, however, there was no "compassionate conservatism" for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Bill Berkowitz Frank Luntz calls Republican leadership in Washington 'One giant whining windbag'On the outs with the GOP, legendary degrader of discourse is moving to California He doesn't make great art; nothing he does elevates the human spirit; he doesn't illuminate, he bamboozles. He has become expert in subterfuge, hidden meanings, word play and manipulation. Frank Luntz has been so good at what he does that those paying close attention gave it its own name: "Luntzspeak."
Bill Berkowitz Spooked by MoveOn.org, conservative movement seeks to emulate liberal powerhouseFueled with Silicon Valley money, TheVanguard.org will have Richard Poe, former editor of David Horowitz's FrontPage magazine as its editorial and creative director As Paul Weyrich, a founding father of the modern conservative movement and still a prominent actor in it, likes to say, he learned a great deal about movement building by closely observing what liberals were up to in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Bill Berkowitz Ward Connerly's anti-affirmative action jihadFounder and Chair of the American Civil Rights Institute scouting five to nine states for new anti-affirmative action initiatives Fresh from his most recent victory -- in Michigan this past November -- Ward Connerly, the Black California-based maven of anti-affirmative action initiatives, appears to be preparing to take his jihad on the road. According to a mid-December report in the San Francisco Chronicle, Connerly said that he was "exploring moves into nine other states."
Bill Berkowitz Tom Tancredo's missionThe Republican congressman from Colorado will try to woo GOP voters with anti-immigration rhetoric and a boatload of Christian right politics These days, probably the most recognizable name in anti-immigration politics is Colorado Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo. Over the past year, Tancredo has gone from a little known congressman to a highly visible anti-immigration spokesperson. "Tancredo has thoroughly enmeshed himself in the anti-immigration movement and with the help of CNN talk show host Lou Dobbs, he has been given a national megaphone," Devin Burghart, the program director of the Building Democracy Initiative at the Center for New Community, a Chicago-based civil rights group, told Media Transparency.
Bill Berkowitz Institute on Religion and Democracy slams 'Leftist' National Council of ChurchesNew report from conservative foundation-funded IRD charges the NCC with being a political surrogate for MoveOn.org, People for the American Way and other liberal organizations If you prefer your religious battles sprinkled with demagoguery, sanctimoniousness, and simplistic attacks, the Institute on Religion and Democracy's (IRD) latest broadside against the National Council of Churches (NCC) certainly fits the bill.
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